This is really just covering the Enchanted Forest part of New Fantasyland. This area also includes Storybook Circus, which I will discuss, but don't have photos of.

The Enchanted Forest features two new castles. First, we see the Beast's:

You can't actually go up to this one, like you can Cinderella's castle, but I think it's pretty :) You can go 'inside' (aka under) only if you dine at Be Our Guest. (More info below)

Behind Ariel here is Prince Eric's castle:

Inside it you will find Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid. This, as so many of Disney's rides are, is a dark ride. You'll board a clam shell and float through the story of The Little Mermaid. It features many of the songs from the movie.

I've heard many people aren't overly fond of this ride, but I thought it was super cute and lots of fun with the peppy music.

In Ariel's Grotto you can get photos and autographs with our favorite mermaid!

The warm cinnamon roll is amazing! We tried the much debated LeFou's Brew. I've heard some people say it's awful, others say it's better than Butterbeer (blasphemy!). In the end, I didn't like it. Bean did. It's a kind of overly sweet apple juice with a marshmallow topping. Not a fan. No where near as good as Butterbeer in my humble opinion. Bean, as I said, liked it and drank it all, but he agrees it's not up to Butterbeer par.

Although it was near 100 degrees, the Girl, a hardcore cocoa lover, had some, and declared it devine!.

The tavern is super fun with little touches like this

Around the other side of the tavern you can find (and sit upon!) Gaston's chair.

We really liked Gaston's and will visit again.

One of the most charming areas is nothing more than a bathroom area! What?

Yes, Rapunzel's tower overlooks a 'floating' lantern display that is just outside the bathrooms. I found the area lovely & really, really hope they do more in the Tangled theme beyond a set of loos.

At Enchanted Tales with Belle you can join Belle & Lumière as they retell the 'tale as old as time'.

Now, to one of my favorite moments in The Enchanted Forest: Be Our Guest! Be Our Guest takes place at the Beast's Castle (technically UNDER it). Be Our Guest is a quick service credit for lunch and a table credit for dinner (refer to my earlier post for more info on the Disney Dining Plan). We actually didn't eat lunch here. My party is a little too picky for the selections. You MUST make reservations for BoG.

You can also get the Souvenir Castle Goblet which lights up for $16.99. Fair warning, this is HUGE and they will not allow you to send it back to your room. If you buy it early in the day, you'll be carrying it all day. Darla bought one and had to deal with the thing all day. :( It a super fun cup though!

We only went to BoG for desserts! We all had The Master's Cupcake except Bean. He had the Triple Chocolate Cupcake. He said it was too rich for his liking, but the rest of us LOVED our Master's Cupcake! It's a chocolate cupcake topped with 'the grey stuff': a cookies and cream panna cotta. Lumière wasn't lying when he said the gray stuff was delicious!

When you go in, they will ask you which room you want to sit in. We chose the forbidden West Wing.

This room is dark and 'scary' with thunder, lightening, and ripped tapestries, and paintings.

The Ballroom is grand, open, large, and quite noisy actually.

Make sure you pay attention to the windows in the Grand Ballroom. It snows!

The Rose Gallery is smaller and quieter than the Ballroom. It's bright and pretty with lots of paintings and the large music box.

These are a few other photos from around the castle (please remember these are all photos from my phone, sorry!)

This is the area where you place your order. Here you order yourself at kiosks, then you are seated. You food is then brought to your table.

These guys greet you as you enter

Another statue from outside

The lovely stained glass

Bean in front of the Ballroom

I love, love loved Be Our Guest! Getting cupcakes there will definitely be a tradition!

The newest ride at the Magic Kingdom is The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This is a family sized coaster. You queue through the mine, then board mine carts for a zipping ride around the tracks. There is a section of the ride that takes you back inside the mine where you'll see the dwarfs working and singing Hi Ho. It was a fun ride, but by Disney standards very short. We rode this via a FastPass. I would have been disappointed if I'd stood in line an hour to ride it, but it was fun.

New Fantasyland: Storybook Circus Attractions:Dumbo the Flying Elephant, The Barnstormer, Casey Jr. Splash 'n Soak Station, Pete's Silly Sideshow, Big Top Souvenirs, Fantasyland StationNow, to Storybook Circus. We didn't actually spend time in this section during this trip. It was actually open on our last trip.

The Barnstormer is a Jr coaster for the little guys, It looks like an airplane and you follow in the path flown by The Great Goofini!Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a classic. Here's the Bean on it in 2012. Dumbo went from one ride, to two identical rides in this re-vamp.

Casey Jr. Splash 'N' Soak Station is a fun place for little ones to cool off. Casey Jr. the train from Dumbo and various animal statues spray water for soggy fun!

Pete’s Silly Sideshow is where you can meet various Disney characters inside one of the Big Top tents!

Finally, there is a new station here for the train, the Fantasyland Station!

Now for the parade!

The Festival of Fantasy Parade

I'm actually, honestly, sorry to say... *whispers* not much a parade person. I know this is not an opinion shared by most, but I'd rather ride rides!

I was very excited to see this new parade though, it looked like a lot of fun.

I had a great location, until Tall Man decided to stand in front of me. I wormed my way around until I found another location, squished up next to a light post in front of Columbia Harbor House. There were lots of magnificent creatures down on the ground, but I couldn't really see them because of all of the people in front of me (I was standing in an elevated location). If you'd like to see more photos, I highly, highly, highly recommend these posts by Jen at Epbot: Post One, Post Two, Post Three.

That's all from New Fantasyland... for now. Soon I'll be making one of my favorite, favorite treats from there. I'm sure it won't take long to figure out what that is.

It's delicious, I didn't even have to ask the dishes! (Now posted: The Grey Stuff)

Sunday, March 15, 2015

This year has flown by. I think it's because my boy is about to graduate and I really would prefer time to stand still.

Time is stubborn though, and it won't listen to me at all. We march forward anyway (see what I did there?).

Now, here we are. 2 days til St. Paddy's day, less than a month until Bean turns 18, and just over 2 months until graduation.

I need distractions, man.

So, I made these fun cupcakes. A wee rainbow sitting atop clouds of fluffy buttercream.

I love that at his age something like these cupcakes still thrill him. Much like my Hogwart's Sorting Cupcakes, these have a surprise. When he & The Girl bit into them... well... they were, indeed, suprised ;)

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Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world... She took the Hogwarts train goin' anywhere.
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